Week 6; Success in Nashville

 

The Bulls did just fine in Nashville last week, taking 4 of 6 games. Combined with the week earlier, the Bulls have gone 9 and 3 over the last 12 games. That’s enough to put them in a tie for 5th place in the 20-team International League and just 1.5 games out of 1st. 

That came during some significant roster moves. The most visible of those was a trade of our best pitcher, Evan McKendry, to Milwaukee for an experienced catcher, Alex Jackson. The oddity was that both players were in Nashville at the time, so they just swapped locker rooms. To the Bulls’ credit, they went on to beat McKendry a day or so later and Jackson has gone 5 for 15 over the 4 games he’s played with a home run and 2 doubles.

Other moves included phenom Taj Bradley being sent down to the Bulls last week. Bradley gave up 6 hits (2 home runs) and 4 runs over just 2 innings in his first appearance. Something simply isn’t quite right with Mr. Bradley.  

Infielder Curtis Mead got called up to the Rays. Doesn’t look like he’s going to get much playing time. Hope it doesn’t mess him up. First time in the majors, so congrats.

Stats stuff: The Bulls continue to lead the IL in strikeouts averaging 1 in every 4 plate appearances. Their .352 OBP is down near the bottom, which is certainly another indicator of impatience.  Overall, the pitching has been OK. The Bulls’ ERA of 4.80 is 4th in the IL and has improved over the last couple of weeks.

Looking to the rest of the season. 

The Bulls are playing Memphis, Gwinnett, Norfolk (again), Nashville (again), Charlotte (again), Louisville, and then Gwinnett (again). Only Norfolk is ahead of the Bulls and the Bulls are tied with Louisville. What could that mean? It could mean that the Bulls could have a shot.

Matchup

The oddity of this week’s matchup is that the parent clubs of the teams are also playing each other. St. Louis is down in St. Petersburg where the Rays are trying to keep up with the Orioles. Memphis isn’t doing all that well, but they’ve got a couple of very dangerous hitters who are probably happy to be at the DBAP. 

Matchup: Bulls vs Redbirds, August 8, 2023
As of August 7	W-L	Rk	RDiff	OPS	ERA	WHIP	Fld%
Durham Bulls (Rays)	19-14	5	34	.811	4.79	1.45	.977
Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals)	15-18	16	0	.802	5.04	1.59	.982
RDiff-Run differential;  Rk - Rank in International League; WHIP - Walks/Hits per Inning;